Born in Bordeaux, France, Louis Antoine Collas studied art in Paris with François André Vincent. An adept miniature and portrait painter, Collas first exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1898 with a self-portrait. In 1808 he moved to St. Petersburg, Russia, for three years where he painted miniatures and portraits of aristocrats and the czar's court. In 1812 he again began exhibiting at the Salon. Seeking patrons and exhibition opportunities, Collas arrived in New York City in 1816.

He traveled up and down the eastern seaboard, receiving commission in Philadelphia and Charleston and exhibiting at the American Academy of Fine Arts in New York City and the

Somewhere around 1816-18 he traveled to in Charleston/South Carolina. He experienced short stays in Baltimore (1818) and Philadelphia (1819); and then once anew in New York in 1820. 1822-24 and 1826-29 he became a prominent miniaturist in New Orleans. In 1829 returned to Bordeaux, and around 1831/32 was noted in Paris, where he exhibited 1831 and again 1833 in the salon American Academy in Philadelphia. Collas was among the earliest group of the European artists to work in New Orleans, which he reached in 1822. Until 1829 he visited Louisiana regularly, painting miniatures and portraits of the growing middle class of plantation owners and merchants. Although he is to have painted also large sized portraits, at present only portrait miniatures are well known. While the work of the early years in France of women, are characterized by a rigid uniformity, his Russian examples tend to exemplify self-willed realism.WORKS